Thursday, August 1, 2013

Courtney's Makeup Trial #1

One of my oldest and closest friends is getting married next month! Courtney and I have been friends since we were 13 and along with Kristi and Lindsay she's one of my oldest friends and I have so many great memories with her and I'm thrilled she asked me to be in her wedding party and plan her bachelorette party. She also asked if I would do her makeup for her bridal shower, bachelorette party and for the day of the wedding. She said she noticed I have been getting into makeup and I'm excited she's letting me practice my skills on her. She'll be the second person I've applied makeup to and oh crap, it's tough. Haha. I've done my sister Brooke's makeup a few times and then more recently for her prom which I was very pleased with how it turned out. I'm getting used to doing makeup on someone else but it will definitely take more practice. At this point the only issue I'm having is liquid liner and mascara.

Tonight I went over to Courtney's to do the first makeup trial. The first look that came to mind for the wedding was a very flawless look with a light eyeshadow with a semi dark crease with no harsh lines. I figured if anything this would also be a great bridal shower look. I figured we would give this a shot and I'll do the look without her knowing anything I was doing and let her see everything when I was done. Then next time I'll have her choose colors and give me some direction of what she envisioned and then the following time after that we would try something dramatic and fun (which would likely be for the bachelorette party). And also for each time we would keep the foundation routine pretty much the same but fine tune it each time.

The foundation routine today was first a liquid foundation (I can't remember what it is at the moment, it's something she had in her makeup bag) which was a good one but I'm thinking I would want to try a bit more coverage foundation for next time. Underneath the eyes I first put my new Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circle Treatment Concealer (in "light"). I got this the other day at Target (I think Gregory Gorgeous was the YouTuber that mentioned that he liked it but I honestly can't remember who it was for sure). This was only my second time using it (once for myself and once for her) and I like it so far!

I also applied my Mac Prep and Prime (in "bright forecast"). And like always I LOVE THAT CRAP. Seriously if anyone wants to gift me the two other shades I might love you forever...just saying! Especially since the other two shades are lighter and one is a pink tone. To set all of that I applied BareMinerals Mineral Veil. It's a shimmery powder and while Courtney likes it shimmery I want to try a matte powder at one point to see how we like it. I set her t-zone with a Mac face powder and then I slightly bronzed up her face with my Mac Bronzing Powder and used a bright pink blush from on one my IPSY bags for her cheeks. Stephen and I agree that next time a bit more bronzer would be a good idea, I just didn't want to go all crazy this time around. I also think it would be fun to try contouring a bit just to see how we like it. But again, I don't want to go super cray with that but I still want her face to have dimension since so many photos will be taken that day.

Now for the eyes!! And for those I have some close up photos of. They were taken with my iPhone which actually photographed pretty well. I've tried taking photos in the past of makeup and it's difficult to do! I always wondered what cameras that girls on Instagram use but at that point..that's a lot of work. But it's their careers so I guess it makes sense to have super amazing quality. So I will say that in person it looks more pigmented and pretty much amazing. And I'll say again..this is like still all new to me, the whole putting makeup on someone else thing. It's hard to know how to place your hands since you're used to putting it on one way and now it's all backwards. I wasn't worried about the eyeshadow part, just the liquid liner and mascara. And since Court is a pro at winged liner so she'll do that for this as well as the mascara. I did it today to test my skills and so I can do the whole look without her seeing it until the end. So please excuse the liner and the placement of the false lashes. That was also a first for me, putting those one someone else. But I'm pleased with what I was able to do. Just takes practice. I also shaped her eyebrows tonight as well. She asked me if I could and I told her I would try (I JUST figured out how to do this on myself these past 6 months). I thought I would at least remove the stray hairs and if I wasn't comfortable shaping them then I would stop and tell her to go get it done. And holy efffff. I did good. Hahaha. I was very surprised that I was able to give her a nice shape and to clean it up a bit. I would still probably suggest her getting them done by a pro a week before the wedding so that way they're perf but again..these turned out pretty good. Haha.

First I used Courtney's MaryKay eyeshadow primer. I started with my Urban Decay Naked Palette and I had "sin" on the inner 2/3 of her eye but then thought it was too sheer and put "skimp" from my Urban Decay Mariposa Palette on and it was closer to what I had envisioned since it's more cream and matte. Also from my Naked Palette I used "naked" for the transitional color for her crease, "hustle" for the outer corner of her eyelid and then "virgin" for her highlight and inner corner.

The liquid liner is NYX and although you can't see it I put a black pencil liner on her bottom lashes and then slightly smudged with "hustle" with a small brush. It looked pretty. Promise! Having it slightly smudged made it softer and not so harsh. I really don't even liked describing it as "smudged" since I didn't lay it on thick. I believe that's all I did today...I didn't fill in her eyebrows since they're already full and but I would go in and add a little bit of something next time. I will for sure for sure for sure for sure use a setting spray for each of the events. I currently have Urban Decay's All Nighter Spray which I'm close to running out of since it's a travel size and I use it like no other. It's amazing how spraying your face with something like this once you're done with your makeup can really help it stay looking great. I really want to try their Chill Makeup Setting Spray since I've heard great things about that one as well.

And I just remembered, the lashes! Courtney got these at the Dollar Store! Whuuuuuuuuuut. They're the ones that crisscross and I prefer those the most out of all the styles and to apply these I didn't use any lash glue. I just kept the sticky stuff on them and placed them on since we just wanted to see how it would look and didn't want to just waste them. We'll use them on Friday when I go back over there to do her makeup for Stephen's birthday. We'll also trim them at that point.

And then for the lips we decided a pinky/nude color would be best. I only had bright pink, hot pink, coral and plum in my bag so I'll go pick something up. I had the perfect lipstick/lipgloss combo that I got from Mac but I lost it! The last time I saw them was on Easter and I have no clue where they are. So sad. And the worst thing is that I don't even have a clue what their names were.

So yeah that's it for this look today! I'll be back there Friday and we'll put together more of a night look since they're going out that night so it's suitable for that and also to play around with things again. So I may share that one as well! I didn't have any plans to put together this post today but as I was writing the caption for these photos for Facebook I realized I should just write a post for it so I can put all the details and whatever. I wanted to do this for Brooke's prom makeup but never got around to it but really, it was pretty similar to this but she has fair skin and no false lashes.